


Reach for the Stars

by Tangerine_Catnip



Series: Crossing that Razor-thin Line [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alien Biology, Anal Sex, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Forced Gem Fusion, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mental Health Issues, Mind Control, Multi, Non-Consensual Bondage, Rape/Non-con Elements, References to Depression, Sexual Abuse, Unhealthy Relationships, Whipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-01-15 21:48:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21260162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangerine_Catnip/pseuds/Tangerine_Catnip
Summary: The events that follow in the wake of Despair.





	1. A Cruel Diamond's Thesis

Steven stared down at the bowl of porridge. He dragged his spoon in slow circles through the thick mixture, sculpting mountains and valleys into the oat-based landscape with every pass. 

“Steven, please. You have to eat something,” Pearl reminded (nagged) him.

“I’m working on it. Just give me a minute.”

Steven lifted a spoonful and shoved it into his mouth. It tasted like it looked, grey mush, but at least it went down smoothly. He still didn’t feel hungry, but the spasms of pain from his stomach had convinced him he should try to eat anyway.

Pearl was hovering over his shoulder, watching every movement. Steven didn’t know what she was hoping to see, maybe she just wouldn’t believe he had eaten unless she saw it with her own eyes.

Amethyst and Garnet were hovering as well, but they understood how to not be obvious about it. Amethyst lent against the edge of the archway leading into the temple while Garnet stood by the fridge, arms crossed.

Every few spoonfuls, Steven had to stop and fight back a wave of nausea. If Steven grit his teeth and tried not to think for a moment or two, the feeling usually passed. He didn’t want to risk throwing up what little he managed to eat.

After almost a full hour, he finally got to the bottom of the bowl. He held it up for Pearl to see and went to rinse it in the sink.

“Thank you, Steven,” Pearl said.

Steven’s shoulders hunched up. Was that how far things had deteriorated? Pearl thanking him for being able to keep himself alive.

He put the bowl into the dish washer and shuffled back towards the stairs to his room. Amethyst bolted over and climbed up onto the back of the sofa. She rested her elbow on the second to top stair blocking Steven’s path.

"Hey, Stevo! The haunted house is open at fun-land. Do you want to go check it out?”

Steven grabbed the inside of his left elbow, his shoulders hunched up like he was protecting himself from an imminent attack.

"No, thanks. I’m not feeling so great. Maybe later?”

Amethyst didn’t have to say it. Steven knew he’d been giving her that exact same excuse for weeks.

It was partly true. He didn’t feel well at all, but the latter part was a bald-faced lie. There was no later. Not one where he would be able to hang out with his big sister like he used to.

“Yeah, Alright,” Amethyst agreed, pulling her arm back and dropping down onto the sofa. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared down at the floor.

Steven dug his fingernails into his arm hard enough to sting. When he got to the landing in-between the two floors, Pearl called up after him.

“Steven?” Pearl stopped at the bottom of the stairs, hesitating as if standing on the edge of a mile-wide chasm.

“You haven’t remembered anything about where you sent Spinel, have you?”

Steven swallowed and shook his head.

“No. I wanted to put her somewhere safe. I thought that would be in the temple but…”

“Ugh! We’ve already checked everywhere like seven times!” Amethyst complained. “She’s not here.”

“She has to be somewhere!” Pearl snapped back. “She can’t just have vanished!”

“Yeah and _how_ is that our problem? Even if something pops her bubble. We’re already wise to her dumb tricks. We kicked her butt easy the second time. A third should be a piece of cake.”

“Are you actually suggesting that we go on ignoring the possibility that Spinel could come back at any moment and catch us by surprise?”

“Uh... yeah. Pretty much.”

Steven watched from the landing. He remembered how much it upset him when Pearl and Amethyst fought like this, but now he was finding it difficult to even pay attention to them.

Steven started up the stairs again. He glanced over his shoulder and landed on Garnet’s visor. He could feel her three eyes boring into his own. He was getting better at lying to Pearl and Amethyst, but Steven wasn’t sure if he was fooling Garnet. With her future vision, it might not even be possible.

But Garnet realized what he was hiding, she wasn’t trying to stop him. Maybe she saw something in the future. Or perhaps she was just as lost as he felt. Either way, he couldn't think about it for long before he felt the invisible tug pulling him up the stairs to his room.

He climbed up the second half, tuning out the sound of Amethyst and Pearl fighting.

Steven hurried to his bed and thrust his hand under the rightmost pillow. He sighed in relief as his fingers closed over her perfectly smooth facets.

Steven collapsed onto his bed and hugged the heart-shaped gem resolutely to his chest.

“I’m back,” Steven whispered. “I’m sorry. It’s too risky to have you with me when they’re all watching, but I’m here now. I’m right here.”

Steven cradled her tightly. Willing more of his warmth into her. When she’d fallen out of her bubble and into his hands, Spinel’s gem had been so cold it burned his skin. He’d fought through the pain and held her close. He’d breathed heavily on her as he tried to warm her up watching the condensation forming on her glassy surface. Bit by bit, he'd brought her back from the brink, but the moment had shaken him so severely that keeping her warm and close had become his top priority.

Steven held the heart up watching the light glint off her dusky magenta facets. As far as he could remember, it was her usual colour, and it was loads better than the pitch black she had turned after being freed.

But if she was alright now, why hadn’t she reformed?

Gems needed some time to recover after being poofed. How much depended on what kind of damage her form had taken and if the Gem in question needed more time to decide how her new form would look.

But those factors usually only accounted for a matter of hours or days, sometimes weeks, but not a month, and never three of them.

Steven turned her gemstone over slowly, hunting for any cinch or crack. He didn’t have much hope of finding anything he wouldn’t have noticed the first hundred times he had looked, but he tried anyway.

He pressed a kiss to Spinel’s Gemstone. A brief spark of pink light glimmered in the centre then faded away. 

“You’re not coming out on purpose… Aren’t you?”

Steven had considered that possibility, but he’d never said it out loud until now. He didn’t want to blame Spinel if there was something wrong that he couldn’t see, but after all the watching and hoping and waiting… it was time to accept the truth.

Steven placed her on the pillow next to him and rested his head in his folded arms. His gaze entirely fixed on her.

“I guess I understand. It’s probably because you don’t want to exist anymore. The other ways didn’t work, so you’re going to try to hide in your gem forever?”

Steven brushed his fingers over her, tracing a smaller heart on the front of Spinel’s gem.

“Maybe if I had the option that’s what I would do too.”

Steven sighed and edged himself a little closer to her gorgeous gem.

“Spinel, please. I miss you. I really, really miss you… I just want to talk. The warp pad is upstairs. We can go wherever you want. Away from the others. When we’re alone, I’ll do whatever you want.”

Steven closed his fingers over her again, wishing he could pass through the reflective surface and pull her out.

“I…” Steven swallowed hard. “I need you.”

Steven’s memories from their fusion were fractured but still frighteningly vivid. The rare nights he managed to sleep, he always found himself returning to that place. Awash in a bright sea of neon set against pitch black. Basking in the certainty that there was nothing left to fear. That the worst could happen, and it would be greeted with a smile. The limitless freedom of knowing you were completely and utterly trapped.

“If you’re waiting for me to leave you somewhere, I won’t. Unless this is a test? Do you want me to prove that I won’t abandon you?”

Steven let the silence linger, even though he knew there wouldn’t be answers for any of his questions.

“Sorry…”

He scooped her up and pressed her to his chest again. He felt so lost. His whole world had shattered to smithereens around him, but the earth kept turning regardless. Every remaining trace of damage from Spinel’s injector had been gradually scrubbed away. Even the poisoned soil had sprung back to life thanks to an antidote serum Peridot had synthesized from a few drops of his saliva.

That should have made him happy, but all he could think about was how unfair it was that the only lasting scars would be the invisible ones left on the hearts and minds of everyone who had taken part in the final confrontation with Despair.

Steven had forgotten what it was like to fuse without a goal in mind. Fusion was a vastly different prospect without a fixed point when the third personality would surrender themselves to bring back their component parts.

There was nothing but the experience and nothing to do but enjoy being who you were. He’d done it once before, but comparing his first innocent romp with Connie to the monster he’d unknowingly unleashed was like comparing the star on his shirts to a hydrogen inferno.

The exquisite pain and endless pleasure. Every sense turned up to eleven. The thrill of defying the whole world with every breath they took.

No one else could understand. Only her. The Gem who he'd given himself up to save. The Gem who had held his hand in the dark and refused to let go. The Gem who craved his love and his hate more then she wanted to live. 

Even before they knew the other existed, they’d had more in common with one another than anyone else in the universe. Now he’d seen the world through her eyes, Steven finally understood. This whole time he thought he was the master of his own destiny. Savour of the Galaxy, Tamer of the Diamonds. When the truth was that his life had been every bit as stifling as Spinel’s. They’d both been pets left behind in cages. The earth was larger than Spinel's garden, but that was the only real difference between the two playgrounds Pink Diamond had walled herself off inside.

He should have seen the garden for what it was the moment he set foot inside it. It was the earth, shrunk down to miniature and with one playmate instead of millions. Spinel had seen it. That’s why she’d boiled over with jealousy. She’d seen how the garden was nothing but a trial run for what Pink would eventually do on earth. Trading games of tag for a mock war, temporary escapism for a permanent kind. She’d played at being Rose Quartz with her new grown-up toys until she’d gotten board once more and left them.

Spinel and he were two sides of the same coin. The differences only a matter of how the pressure had been applied. Now their paths had collided, he couldn’t imagine going on without her as his other side. 

“I’ll wait for you. Months or years. Whatever it takes,” Steven promised. “As long as I get to see you again.”

He rubbed his thumbs over both sides of the heart, creating friction, keeping her warm. Letting her know he was there.

There had to be something he could do. Some way to coax her out. She must miss him every bit as much as he missed her. He’d shared her joy, her pleasure, her pain. He’d felt the bonds between them dig hooks into his soul, tearing it open to make room for her inside his chest.

A faint scar was still visible above his belly from where Connie’s sword had pierced their body. Steven’s healing powers had stopped the bleeding, but the real wound was higher on his chest, seeping and festering. His will to live draining away without Spinel’s Gem in place to stem the flow.

He pressed it back into that spot. Flipped the wrong (right) side up. It wasn’t enough, of course. Spinel was in there but behind an impenetrable barrier. Hiding in the one place he couldn't reach her.

“Why do you always have to be so difficult?”

Steven heard the growl in his voice. That wasn't like him. He was persistent, understanding, empathetic. Didn't he just say he would wait?

But… how much more could he take? Would he even last another month? He’d just said that he needed her. He couldn't think, he couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep; it hurt to even pretend to smile. He couldn’t help anyone or protect them. All he could do was lay on his bed in the dark and obsess over **her** and **them**. 

Was he even really Steven anymore? He looked like Steven, sounded like Steven, everyone treated him like Steven… but he didn’t feel like it. Not really. He was thinking things Steven would never think, doing things he would never do.

Turning his back on his family, letting Beach City fend for itself in the wake of widespread destruction, leaving the Diamonds to their own devices, not caring if they slipped back into their old ways.

Everything Steven had fought for was crumbling around him, and he couldn't find the resolve to even think about it for more than a moment or two. 

The old Steven would have held his head high. He would have accepted that there was no happily ever after and found a way to move on, but the Steven that he’d become was nothing but a broken half of a broken creature with no hope besides finding his way back into the arms of Despair.

He held Spinel’s gem up again. Selfish. Spinel was being so selfish. He’d given her everything, hadn’t he? What right did she have to sulk inside her gem while he slowly killed himself pining after her? 

“Fuck this,” he hissed. Sitting up in bed. “I’ve changed my mind. Come out right now. Come out of your gem and talk to **me.**”

He held her in both hands, willing her to start glowing. Spinel sat in his hands as if she were nothing more then an unusually large shiny rock.

“Come out before I make you.”

Steven took several deep breaths. He didn’t want to do it, but he knew she would make him. It was just the sort of thing she would find funny.

“Do you think I can’t make you? Are you hoping I’ll get frustrated and shatter you? You’re wrong. You’re mine. Every bit of you belongs to me. I can force you out by fusing with you. There’s no escape, not in your gem, and not in shards.”

Steven kissed her gem firmly, setting off the faint sparkle. It would take much more than a kiss to light her up, but it wouldn’t be hard.

“You changed me. You’re all I want now and the Steven you made is greedy enough to take what he wants.”

Steven passed her to his left hand and reached down with his right. He touched the button on the front of his pyjama pants. Spinel couldn’t see him, not from inside her gem, but there was still a line there. A line he didn’t have to cross.

Or was he only imagining there was a line? Did keeping his pants on really excuse what he had already done?

Despair knew what he’d already done, and that meant Spinel must know as well. She’d heard all the messed-up thoughts he’d had while he was grinding against her.

A cold voice whispered to him from the darkness that had taken root inside his mind.

_‘You used her.’_

Despair cackled in his ear. Relishing in the truth he’d been too cowardly to acknowledge.

_‘Spinel had **no** idea what you were doing to her. She couldn’t consent, and even if she could, you never even asked. You dangled the promise of fusion in front of her so she would behave, and you took advantage.’_

Steven met his eyes in the reflection in Spinel’s gem. His pupils had fractured into tight black and white spirals.

_‘And now you’re going to use her again, all because you won’t accept that she can’t stand to look her rapist in the eye._’

Steven gathered up a teaspoon of saliva on his tongue and spat on Spinel’s gem. She glowed in response, brighter and longer than his tender kisses had provoked.

“Last chance Spinel. I… I just want to talk.”

_‘Awww, silly-willy Steven. Spinel might be an empty-headed bimbo, but even she's not stupid enough to fall for that.’_ Despair giggled.

Steven unbuttoned his pants, closing his fingers around his cock and squeezing gently. He wiped the glob of Spit across Spinel’s gem with his tumb. She glinted in return, the white glow shining off her surface.

“I’d ask if you like that, but I can tell you don’t have a choice.”

Steven spat on her again. He spread his thighs and held her down between them. He spread out the glob of saliva with the head of his dick, sensitive nerve endings lighting up with the warm and wet mixed with her hard surface.

“I think you’ll like what I’m going to give you, but it’d be a lot more fun if you were here with me.”

Steven squeezed the base of his cock tightly. He was even shitty at being a manipulative bastard. 

He pealed his fingers back one at a time and held up his right hand. Needing a moment to gather up another mouthful of saliva.

Every Gem in the universe was made with a little bit of the Diamonds in them. Water that touched the form of a Diamond was enough, but being half-human Steven had plenty of his own fluids to rely on.

His sympathy healed, but what he was feeling towards Spinel was nothing like sympathy. Instead of healing it… affected her. He didn't know why he'd thought to try it. An enduring memory, or maybe an instinct. A compulsion to shape the Gems around him into what he wanted them to be.

And what he wanted Spinel to be was his. He wanted everything his mother had taken for granted. Her love, her devotion, the flaws Pink’s neglect had inflicted, her hatred, her obsession. 

Steven stripped off his shirt then spit his mouthful of saliva into his hand. He looked from his wet fingers to Spinel’s gem, his dick pressed against her perfect facets.

“I’m so fucked up.”

Steven swallowed. He hoped he had enough saliva because his mouth had suddenly run dry. 

He closed his fingers over his cock, coating himself in it, then smearing the rest over the heart. He sandwiched his cock between her gem and his right hand. She shimmered bright pink; warm like the form she was hiding from him.

She’d thought he couldn’t change her, but she was wrong. He'd done it once, and he'd keep doing it. He’d pull her out of her gem and break her from the inside out, just like she broke him. Then he'd put her back together only to break her some more.

Steven stroked himself with her gem, his breath coming in increasingly laboured pants. Spinel was right there with him, but his mind still wandered like he was thinking of someone else. He imagined pulling on her pigtails, wrestling with her tantalizingly flexible body, forcing her into any position he wanted. He’d silence whatever poisonous words were poised on her snarling lips with his mouth and tongue, then his cock. Shoving it down her throat and taking full advantage of the fact she didn't need to breathe.

He rocked his hips along with his hands, pressing tighter rubbing against her faster. Pre-cum leaked from the head of his cock, mixing in with the saliva. Spinel glowed even brighter.

“Y-yeah... that’s what I thought,” Steven murmured. I told you it would be better.”

Steven’s gem began to sparkle in sync with her. The last time he had used fusion to reach inside a gem, it had been a desperate act of love. He had plenty of the first, but he’d have to improvise around the second.

_‘Spinel is the only thing you care about anymore, and you still don’t love her? That… that’s just beyond tragic.’_

Sparks flashed through the air, raw energy seeking out the opposing current like lightning bolts. Steven didn't want to drag this out, and he didn't think he could if he tried. Spinel’s gem felt so good, her pure hardness offsetting his sweaty, sticky palm, but it wasn’t tight enough to make him finish.

He put her down and fisted his cock in his right hand, squeezing his fingers tight and pumping hard and fast. 

_‘Then again. Using Spinel as your personal masturbation toy would be even worse If you loved her, wouldn’t it?’_

Steven’s stared down at her, not even willing to blink. Her gem covered in his fluids, her pink glow edging closer to white. Even in her dormant state, she was vulnerable to him, able to be plied with pleasure into giving him everything.

_‘Then it will be my turn to shine again. Won’t that be exciting? You haven’t even thought about what you’ll do when you’re me. Not that I’d listen to you anyway. I’ll do whatever I feel like.’ _

Steven’s left eye closed and his tongue slipped past his bottom lip, a small trail of drool dripping from the side of his mouth. He was close. So close. 

_‘Hehehhheeeeehh’ _

Steven's lips twisted into a smile, and he started to laugh along with the voice in his head, his chest convulsing with the need to breathe between fits of laughter. He braced himself against the mattress and bent over Spinel’s gem, hunching like a dog about to mark its territory. 

He tightened his grip, freezing up as his dick throbbed under his fingers, holding still to persevere his aim. He hit his target perfectly, thick ropes of cum painting up the inverted heart, not a single drop sliding off.

He took his right hand back and stifled a few last giggles. He watched as his gift to her sunk in and took effect. Her spectrum shifted, almost like his cum had dyed her white. The glow around his navel had gone pure white. They were both ready.

“From now on, you’re going to play when I want you to. Got it?”

Steven picked her up and pressed her to his chest. This time she stayed where he put her.

* * *

Despair awoke with a snap, gasping for breath. They glanced around, shaking their head as they reconciled the two conflicting sets of memories that had led up to this moment.

Steven knew how confusing fusing with an unformed gem could be, but it didn’t help Despair get their bearings any faster.

“Ew. What the fuck?”

Despair squinted down at their four hands and wiggled their fingers. 

“Four hands, twenty fingers, two legs, two gems, a horrible certainty that nothing I do will ever matter, that life is all but a brief and pointless spark waiting to be consumed by an uncaring void...”

Despair covered their eyes with one pair of hands and drummed their fingers on their thighs with the other.

“Guess who... guess who… Who could I be? Am I Opal? No. I would have split apart by now from all the bitching. Am I Sardonyx? No, my head isn’t **that **far up my own ass. I'm too sexy to be Sugilite, to cool to be rainbow… Hmm. this is a real thinker.”

Despair grinned and pulled their hands away.

"Wait, I know! I’m not a gem at all. I’m Despair!” 

Despair jumped up off the bed and drew themselves up to their full height. 

“This is marvellously maleficent! My maudlin malcontent makers muffed up and mixed into a melancholy masquerade from master’s mindlessly misbegotten, ministrations! How merciless of Steven to misbehave, manipulate and misguide his mediocre misfit of a minion, Spinel.”

Despair held their arms out and stretched them up over their head, rolling back their shoulders as they worked out some of the stiffness. Then they blinked and glanced down at their body. 

“Also, why the fuck am I naked? Am I auditioning for the Moulin rouge or something?”

Despair peeked over their shoulder and turned around slowly. They were wearing Steven’s pyjama pants, which worked out more like shorts on their long legs, and nothing else.

“Ooh la la! Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?”

Despair giggled and blushed, pressing their hands over their burning cheeks. 

“Alright. I’ve gotta know what I’m packing.”

Despair grabbed the waistband of their pants and pulled it back, bending forward to peek between their legs.

“Whoa… is that even legal?”

A loud knock echoed up from the base of the stairs.

“Steven! Can we come in?” Garnet called.

Despair let go of their waistband. Right, the others. What to do… what to do…

Garnet waited for a reply then tried again. “Steven?”

Pearl gave a strangled cry followed by a thud as she pushed Garnet out of the way to clamber up the steps.

“Steven!”

She stopped on the landing and panned her head from one side to the other like a security camera. Amethyst popped up behind her right shoulder.

“Whoa. Where the heck did he go?”

Garnet followed them up, her expression unreadable behind her visor.

“Garnet, what do we do?” Pearl asked.

Garnet clenched her fists and shook her head. “The warp pad will tell us if it’s been used recently. Apart from that… We’ll just have to wait and hope he comes back soon.”

Garnet strode over to the sliding door leading onto the wooden walkway. 

“Wh-what?” Pearl stammered as she trailed after Garnet. “No! We need to call everyone! Assemble a search party! Send out recon ships!”

Garnet sighed as she slid the door open.

“Steven has access to the galaxy-wide warp system. We can’t search every planet.” 

“Yes, we can! We just-”

Garnet closed the door behind them as the three Gems started up the stairs to the Diamond base.

Despair opened one eye then the other. A smile full of pointed teeth blossoming on their face. They let go of the large crossbeam that supported the angled roof and dropped elegantly to the floor. Their pigtails drooping along with the rest of their body.

“Gosh, talk about a lack of privacy. A fusion hardly has enough room to experience themselves around here.”

They perked up suddenly, eyes going wide.

“Now where oh where could a naughty widdle doggy like me go to get some alone time? A place just for me, myself and I…”

Despair bounced down the stairs and into the living room. They ignored the front door and headed the other way, stepping over the dividing line between Steven’s home and the stone temple. Despair approached the imposing doorway. The gem imbedded in their belly glowed along with the pink stone in the topmost part of the star.

The star shrunk away, and a pink swirl enveloped the passageway, opening into an endless sea of fluffy pink clouds. 

“OooooooooooooooooOOOoo…”

Despair struck one foot in past the door and tested their weight against the cotton candy ground. It held, and they stepped through the doorway. The portal closed behind them and vanished in a puff of pink.

Despair held all four arms out and spun around, taking in the vast landscape around them.

“The hills are alive with the sound of music! With songs they have sung for six thousand years!”

Despair looked up to the sky and let their arms fall back at their sides.

“The hills fill my heart with utter Despair! I’d scream for mercy, but there's no one to hear!"

Despair cackled and tucked two of their hands into the pockets on Steven's pyjama pants. 

“So, this is Pink’s room. Jeez, I never would have guessed. Except… This must be where she kept all the fucks she had to give! Look at them all!”

Despair gestured around at the empty space and laughed at their own joke. 

“Ah. It’s Just as empty as her soul. Buuuuuuut, according to Steven. Anything I ask for will just pop into existence. Heh… no wonder Pink was such a relentless bitch. She could have everything she wanted in an instant, and she **still** wasn’t happy.” 

Despair closed their eyes and summoned up a picture in their head.

“How about a seat that’s truly worthy of my glorious keister?”

A cold breeze swept around them as the clouds swirled upward.

Despair open their eyes, lips forming a manic grin that split their face as completely as the divide down the centre.

Despair strode up the length of the neon-pink carpet, taking the stairs one at a time. The crumbling ruins of a grand cathedral surrounded them. Crystal vases full of dead flowers lined the isles, set below huge stained-glass windows depicting the many crimes of Pink Diamond. Abandoning Spinel, her fake shattering, the war against herself, the corruption of all the gems on earth besides her chosen few and then finally, her choice to end her own existence to pass on her mistakes.

The last five windows shifted the narrative from Pink to Steven and Spinel. The two on Spinel’s side depicted her poofing the crystal gems and dangling Steven by his jacket sleeve over the edge of the injector. Steven’s side showed him cowering in fear as hundreds of hands reached out towards him, including the massive grasping fingers of the three diamonds, and his unconscious body hanging limply in the grasp of Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz.

The last window sat at the top of a massive marble staircase that swooped around the raised plinth; bathed in the light streaming in from the massive hole torn in the north-east wall. It showed Steven and Spinel on the capstone of the injector. Her legs crossed tight behind his hips, him clinging to her, and looming over them both, a dark and frightening sexy silhouette.

Despair reached the top of the plinth and dropped into the gilded throne that looked out over this dismal picture. The throne was split down the middle between pink and pure black stone. A pattern of diamonds and inverted hearts decorated the back in a checkerboard pattern. Despair tilted their head back and gazed up at the golden star set above their head. It looked just like the one on the temple door except a vast crack ran across the top part, severing the pink stone from the other four points. Despair closed their hands over the armrests, running their fingertips over the two gemstones that capped each. The Pink Dimond and the heart Spinel. Both were shattered down the middle, the remaining half resting on the floor at Despair’s feet.

“Hehehehe… Ahha-hahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Despair’s laughter filled the barren cathedral, growing louder and louder as it echoed off the walls.

Then they stopped.

“……” 

Another breeze shifted the decaying flower petals that coated the marble floor.

“Actually. Screw this. Gimme a bean bag chair.”

The cathedral vanished with a pop and Despair sunk down into a massive plush pink puff.

“Yeah, nice!”

Despair flipped over and nuzzled in. Moaning in pure satisfaction. They lay still for a while, sinking even deeper into the warm embrace of the giant bean bag.

Then they got restless and sat up again.

“Gee, Despair. What are we going to do now?”

Despair planted their chin on two of their hands and frowned.

“I could get out of here. Garnet was right about one thing. I can go wherever I want. No one will recognize our lord and saviour Steven Universe when he’s part of something like me. I could go clubbing on Ursa Minor Beta, go surfing on the silver causeway, go explore the jungles on that one moon in the Centro Cluster… I’m free to do whatever the fuck I want!”

Despair suddenly bolted upright and bent over the side of the beanbag.

“Hrrrck…”

They retched violently and shoved all four hands over their mouth to try to hold back the tide. 

“Oh… oh god. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. How could I even suggest something so sickeningly hopeful? Ugg!”

Despair shook themselves from head to foot, their pigtails quivering. 

“Quick, think of something shitty!”

Despair swallowed hard, forcing back down the grey mush that was all Steven had eaten that day.

“I know! Let’s focus on why I’m here! That was a magnificent display of absolute Despair if I’ve ever seen one!”

Despair dropped out of the chair and wrapped all four arms around themselves.

“Mmmmmhmmmmm... Spinel… so broken and empty she wouldn’t form. Steven, so pathetic and desperate he rubbed one out over Spinel’s fucking gemstone!”

Despair moaned and fell to their knees. A shudder of pleasure passing through them.

His cum made her feel so good. Her gemstone couldn’t protect her. She’s had a taste now; she’ll start to crave it. It’s what he wanted even if he’s too cowardly to admit it. 

Despair clawed at their face, dragging their fingers over their cheeks. 

“Ha. Ha. Ha.”

Their laugh was slow and monotone. Tears streaming from their eyes. 

“and the most tragic, despair-inducing thing I could possibly do right now is…”

Despair’s eyes filled with Spirals as they imagined what was going to happen next.

“Stop existing.”

“Ha!” Despair dropped their hands and barked out the laugh. “Alright, you two. Play nice while daddy is away.”

Despair shaped the tips of their fingers into razor-sharp claws and stabbed themselves in the chest. They tore one pair of hands along the line between pink and beige and the other between Spinel and Diamond

They howled with pain as their form destabilized. Spinel and Steven were thrown in separate directions, landing in puffs of clouds.

Steven lay on his back, staring up at the pink sky through his tears. Pain wracked his body, aftershocks of Despairs claws ripping into him, but that was nothing compared to the tight knot in his lower belly and the pressing ache of his hard-on tenting the front of the pants that had fit Despair so poorly.

A muffled whimper carried across the empty void between the pink clouds, snapping Steven out of his elegiac haze. 

“Spinel!”

Steven pushed himself up and struggled to his feet, straining to find pink against pink again, but then the clouds parted, creating a pathway that led him right to her. Spinel was laying on her side, curled up with her legs folded against her chest and her arms wrapped tightly over them. Her face was hidden in her knees, but Steven could tell she was crying from the sobs racking her form.

“Spinel… I-”

Steven placed a hand on her shoulder, and that was when a crucial detail finally sunk in. Despair hadn’t had any of the more extravagant elements of Spinel’s previous form. He followed the curve of Spinel’s back, finding only more cotton candy pink wherever he looked. Her form had been reduced to only the bare minimum outline of her body. Or in human terms, she was completely naked. 

_‘ya like it?’_ Despair purred in his ear. _‘that’s a little present for both of you.’_

Spinel's hold on her legs lessened, and Steven pulled on her shoulder, rolling her onto her back. Empty and dull pink eyes stared up unblinkingly at him as silent tears streamed down her cheeks. Steven’s gaze didn’t stay on her face for long.

Spinel looked just like she did in the fevered fantasies he pretended he didn’t have about her. Just like herself, but with the small changes that would bridge the gap between his human side and her.

Steven caught himself before his hand got to the spot between her legs. His dick ached in anticipation. Knowing from being a part of her moments before that she’d been sculpted by his desire into this new body she didn’t fully understand. 

He made himself meet her eyes again. See her tears and the way she was trembling with fear. He had done that to her. It was all his fault.

His whole life Steven had been crushed under a mountain of guilt, most often for things that had never been his responsibility, or for choices he had to make with no time to fully grasp the implications.

This time it was his fault. He’d forced all this on her. He couldn’t pretend he wasn’t hurting her when he was looking in her eyes. 

But somehow, the guilt he should be feeling never showed up. He brushed her cheek with his hand, gathering up her tears and licking them off his fingers. Her despair tasted divine, salty and bitter and every bit as potent as his own. 

Steven blinked his tears away. He grabbed Spinel around the middle and pulled her into his lap.

“No! Please, please Steven. Don’t. Please don't,” Spinel begged him.

Was she really pleading for him to stop or was this part of heightening the despair? It didn't really matter, and he didn’t really care.

She’d only been in his lap for a moment, and a damp spot was already spreading across the pant leg Spinel was straddling. 

“Aww, Spinel.” Steven cooed to her, holding her face in his hands as a grin filled his lips. “you gave up on yourself. Remember? You don’t have any right to say what happens now.”

Steven moved his hands to Spinel hips, shifting her over just enough. 

“I gave up everything to save you, and now it’s your turn. From this moment on, you belong to me. Understand?” 

“Y-yes, Steven.”


	2. Cycles Can't be Broken

“Hey, Steven!” 

Steven sat up, propping himself up on his elbows. 

“Hey, Connie!”

Connie stopped halfway up the hill, leaving a few meters of space between her and the place where Steven was laying in the grass. He could tell she was trying to read the temperature in the room, (even though there was no room) before getting any closer. He gave her a faint smile that seemed to pacify. Connie approached and took a seat on the grass beside him. 

“How are you feeling?” Connie asked. She folded her hands tightly in her lap but didn’t manage to stop herself from fighting.

“A lot better, thanks,” Steven replied. He sat up and crossed his legs. He’d been laying outside for a few hours, but he could have stayed for a few more. It was one of those days where it seemed like a crime not to be outdoors. The warm afternoon sunshine was perfectly offset by the crisp autumn air and the fresh breeze drifting in from the ocean. 

“That’s great! Garnet said so on the phone but… It’s nice to hear it from you,” Connie admitted. 

She looked around at the hill that backed the gem temple. “The grass came in nicely.”

Steven nodded. “Even the wildflowers grew back. I guess that’s the Earth for you though, always full of surprises.” 

“Ha… yeah,” Connie agreed as she ran her hand through the vibrant green blades. 

After another long, awkward moment, Connie said, 

“Hey, Steven. Sorry again about um... stabbing you.”

Steven shrugged. “No worries. It was bound to happen eventually.” 

Connie tilted her head to the side, eyebrows creasing together and her lip curving like she wasn’t sure if she was going to smile or not. 

“Um… I guess so.” 

Steven lay back down on the grass and crossed one arm behind his head. Connie took his lead and lay down on the grass beside him. 

“You’re sure you okay?” she asked. 

“Okay is a… strong word, but I’m getting better.”

Connie pursed her lips. 

“Is… is there anything you want to talk about?”

Connie moved her hand towards his and Steven moved it out of her reach. 

“Thanks, but I’ve been talking about it a lot. I kinda just want some quiet time now.”

“Alright. If that’s what you need.” 

* * *

“That THING is not Steven!” 

Steven paused with his hand hovering over the sliding doors handle. 

“Amethyst! Are you even hearing yourself? Steven had had a miserable few months, and now you want to add to it by complaining that he’s not acting like he used to?”

“It’s not just different Pearl! It’s wrong! Haven’t you seen the way he smiles? It might as well be painted on!”

The voices from inside grew quieter. Pearl rarely raised her voice, but when arguing, but with Amethyst, things quickly turned into a screaming match. Steven slid open the sliding door and stepped inside catching Amethyst’s next argument. 

“How is this better?! At least when Steven was a sad sack it was still him!”

Pearl noticed him first. She hissed loudly and gestured at Amethyst to shut up. 

“Oh, Steven! Did you have a nice walk?” Pearl asked once she finished her dramatic sooshing. 

“Yeah, it was great. The weather is really nice,” Steven replied as he wiped his shoes on the mat. He walked over to the fridge and pulled the door open. Steven found a can of strawberry cream soda and popped the top. He took a long sip from it and headed up the stairs to his room. 

“Hey Pearl, I’m going to grill myself hotdogs for dinner if that’s cool,” Steven called over his shoulder. 

“Yes! Of course!” Pearl replied. Waving back at him. Steven rounded the corner, pausing as soon as he was out of sight from the first floor. 

“I can’t believe you’re smiling and waving while your baby is being worn like a skin suit,” Amethyst muttered. 

“Amethyst! Outside.”

* * *

“Ooookay, your turn!” 

Spinel examined the chessboard. With the current placement of pieces, Spinel could check the enemy Diamond in as few as three moves. She looked up at her opponent, who was swinging her legs in the air off the side of her chair and humming tunelessly to herself.

“I think I’m starting to see why Pink abandoned me,” Spinel muttered. “I’m really fucking annoying.”

The younger and cuter Spinel giggled and batted her hand in the air. 

“Who? Me? Aw, Shucks. I’m not so bad when ya get to know me. Wink.”

The gem who had formerly been Spinel winked when she said the word. Spinel narrowed her eyes at herself and went to make her next move. 

“Yeah, no. I know you all too well, that’s my whole problem…”

Spinel glided the white Agate diagonally across the board, knocking out the opposing pink topaz. 

Formerly-Spinel stuck her tongue out the corner of her mouth, scratching her head as she leaned over the table. It and the two chairs they were sitting in were the only fixed points for miles around, everything else was pink clouds. Above, below, stretching out as far as the eye could see. 

Formerly-Spinel moving her pawn forward one space, stalemating it with one of Spinel’s. There probably wasn’t a more useless move for her to have made. It was like watching someone rearrange deck chairs on the bridge of a crashing star cruiser. 

Spinel nudged her tower piece into position, then on her next turn, she moved her Pearl for the check.

“Wowzers! You won again! That was even faster than last time. Gee yuh sure are good at this!” Formerly-Spinel enthused.

Spinel plucked the Pink Diamond piece off the board and held it loosely in her hand. Pink was posed like her mural, frozen mid-leap, the colony she had abandoned Spinel for held tight in her grasp. 

“What’s with the frowny face?” Formerly-Spinel asked, climbing up onto the table and jumping up and down. “You won!”

**“Shut up!”**

Spinel slammed the piece down on the board, cracking Pink Diamond down the middle. The table wobbled. Formerly-Spinel tumbled off it, landing on her face in the cloud floor. Spinel kicked her chair away and rounded the table. She stamped her foot down on Formerly-Spinel’s back, grinding her into the astonishingly unyielding clouds. 

“Is dat how yuh think it works?! You think I’ll suddenly feel bettuh just becawze I won some pointless game?!

Spinel eased off the pressure just long enough for Formerly-Spinel to start sitting up, then Spinel slammed her back down again. Formerly-Spinel tried to cover her pained squeal with a giggle. 

“Hehe… I… I was hoping… it would be fun,” she stammered. 

“Fun? How am I supposed to have fun when you’re trying to lose so obviously that you didn't even try to take anya my pieces!” 

Spinel gestured over at the board and the pile of pink pieces sitting to the side, while all the white ones were still in play. Formerly-Spinel didn’t seem to have anything to say about that. She lay still, while her eyes filled with tears. 

Spinel eased her foot off and rounded on the table. She grabbed one side and flipped it with all her strength, sending the chessboard flying, pieces scattering like rain. As they hit the ground the objects turned back into clouds. All but the tiny pink diamond statue which landed near Formerly-Spinel. The diminutive gem crawled over to it, picking up the two halves in either hand. 

“Now there’s something to laugh about,” Spinel mused, and she stalked back over to her Former self. “Yuh suck so bad; yuh suck at sucking!” 

Spinel laughed loudly and cruelly. Formerly-Spinel tried to join in, “heh... ye-yeah that’s… pretty funny.” 

Spinel rounded on her and thrust out her hand. 

“Give it.”

Formerly-Spinel flinched and clutched the broken diamond to her chest. 

“Now!” 

Her hands trembling, Formerly-Spinel pried the statuette from her chest and dropped both halves into Spinel’s hand. Spinel closed her fingers, crushing it into pink fluff. 

Formerly-Spinel flinched and shut her eyes. Two matching tears slid down her cheeks. 

“Ugh, you are so pathetic!” Spinel spat. “Don’t you have any spine at all!”

Formerly-Spinel rubbed her tears away and stood up shakily, forcing a laugh. 

“Oh-hoho... l-let me check…” She twisted her body around in knots as she checked over every part of her form. 

“Nope! No spine!” she concluded, planting one hand on her hip and waging her pointer finger. 

“Just a Spine…el! Hrrk-!” Formerly-Spinel scarcely managed to get the pun out before Spinel’s fist closed around her throat. 

Spinel lifted her until they were eye to eye, Spiraling pink meeting simple black. 

“I’ve got a game,” Spinel hissed through clenched teeth. “This one is called ‘Spinel punches her stupid RealDoll of a past-self in the fucking face until she poofs.’” 

Spinel leaned in until their faces were less than an inch apart. Formerly-Spinel shook in fear, her form shrinking in on itself. 

“Wanna play?” Spinel taunted. 

“Wh-why would you do that?” Formerly-Spinel stammered.

“Because it will make me feel better,” Spinel purred, tightening her grip on Formerly-Spinel’s throat. “Isn’t that what you wanted? to make me ‘feel better’.

“Y-yes,” Formerly-Spinel hiccupped as she tried to swallow her sobs. 

“Aw, what’s da mattuh Spinel, yuh don’t want me tuh punch yuh in da face? If dat’s the case, why doncha say it?”

Silent tears streamed down Formerly-Spinel’s face, but her mouth fixed in a forced smile.

“Say it!” Spinel bellowed. “Tell me yuh don’t want me tuh hurtcha tuh make myself feel bettuh! Stand up fawh yurself fawh once in your worthless life!”

A hand closed over Spinel wrist, fingers digging in sharply, forcing her to drop Formerly-Spinel. 

“Taking your anger out on her isn’t going to make you feel better.”

Spinel spun around and stumbled backwards. Steven met her gaze, lowering his hand but holding tight to her wrist. 

Yeah, and how de hell would yuh know dat? Yuh a psychic or somethin'? 

Steven rolled his eyes at her. 

“Because I’ve already watched you try and fail, over, and over, and over again.” 

Steven looked down at the quivering form of Formerly-Spinel. She had her arms crossed over her head, curled up in a tight ball. He waved a hand. She vanished in a puff of clouds. 

Steven pulled the current Spinel closer. Spinel could have tried to stretch away from him, but there was no point. The room she was trapped inside was an extension of his will, there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. 

“It’s not her fault. She was trying her best.”

Steven wrapped his arms around her, tucking his fingers under the waistband of the pink exercise shorts he’d given her to wear. 

He bowed his head and went right for her gem, planting a warm kiss in the centre of the heart. 

“It is to her fault! She’s a stupid, worthless, pathetic, boot licking, apple polishing... Aha!” 

The intense tingling pleasure spiked suddenly when Steven licked her gem. Spinel melted in his arms, succumbing to him completely. As if Steven were an addictive drug being injected right into her form. 

“And Sh-she… She can’t say, ‘no’…” Spinel stammered as Steven kissed the side of her neck. 

“She’s **is **you. Isn’t she?” Steven taunted; his breath hot against her neck. 

“I hate you,” Spinel hissed as Steven cupped her backside in his hands and scooped her up.

“Good. You should hate me after all the awful things I’ve done to you,” Steven agreed. 

Spinel squeezed her eyes shut. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t hate Steven. At least not hate him in the way that was simple or easy. 

“I need you. I’m not letting you go. But you can feel whatever you like. It’s one of the few freedoms I can let you have.” 

Steven put her down and Spinel sunk into a familiar plush surface with a gentle curve in it. The fact that Steven had summoned up this piece of furniture told Spinel everything about what her night (and it must be nighttime if Steven wouldn’t be missed) was going to look like. 

He’d take his time with her, around an hour most likely. He’d luxuriate in kissing and licking her form, giving her some of the pleasure he experienced while filling up the empty place he’d put between her legs. Then when he finally came, Spinel would moan and wimpier like a bitch in heat as her traitorous form reacted to being filled up with Diamond essence. 

Then, an unfairly short amount of time later, Steven would recover, and it’d be time for another round. 

Spinel stretched her arms over her head, over the highest of the two ridges that hemmed the dip in the middle of the oddly shaped lounge chair. There were straps on the sides that Spinel was careful not to touch, lest it remind her what it felt like when they were fastened around her wrists. 

Steven wouldn’t use them if she stayed still and behaved. Over the last few weeks, Spinel had learned how. Falling back into her subservient role with only shallow scrapes of pain to show for her failed attempt to deftly her master. 

The buttons on the front of her fluffy white blouse gave way under Steven’s fingers. Spinel didn’t understand why humans even bothered to wear clothing when it could be removed so effortlessly. It never provided her with much protection at all. 

Spinel wouldn’t have bothered at all if clothing Steven had gotten her hadn’t looked a bit like her old form. Sometimes, if she didn’t think too hard about it, she could almost forget what she looked like underneath. 

As for the weird ‘underwear’ stuff that Steven had tried to get her to put on. He’d have to break her a lot harder before she put anything that revealing on. Spinel would much rather go without, thanks. 

Steven pulled the blouse over her head and slipped her shorts down her legs. Spinel braced her feet against the incline, tilting her hips back into the preferred position. 

“Missionary? Again? Fuck! You two are sooooooo boring!”

Spinel jolted, sitting up and curling in on herself. A monster roughly hers and Steven’s combined hight loomed over her. Hands that looked a lot like her own braced against the curved backrest.

“Stwven. I’m so disappointed in you. Is this rweally all I’m worth to you? A widdwle pity bang whiwe Spinel closes her eyes and thinks of Engwand?”

Steven met Despair’s glare over her head. His lips pulled back to reveal his clenched teeth. 

“Come on, girlfriend! You’ve got the galaxies most advanced Masturbation aid at your disposal, and this is all you can think to do with her?” 

Despair gestured down the length of Spinel’s body with both right hands. 

“Or, it’s not. Is it? There’s plenty of things you _ can _ think of, but you’re still too much of a bleeding heart to take them.”

Despair’s pink pigtail curled up to the point where it matched the brown one. Both shrunk up, sticking close to their head to mimic Steven’s short curls. The two beige hands pressed against their cheeks and they made their eyes open wide, their pupils shifting into stars. 

“Look, I’m Steven! I’m keeping Spinel hostage inside my mother’s magic room where I have complete and total control over everything inside it! I only ever visit her when I need another hit of pleasure so I can keep pretending I’m still regular old not-fucked-up Steven! Aka; not a pointless, stroke/slash worthless, deflated-husk! Now, I know that _ sounds _ bad, but if I assault her in the most boring way imaginable, it’s almost like I’m not actually abusing her!”

Despair dropped the façade and leaned back towards their hybrid half, rather pointlessly adding, “That’s you. That’s what you should like.” 

Compared to his long-winded fusion, Steven’s reply was shocking concise. 

“Fuck off.”

He swatted at Despair. The moment his fingers made impact they disappeared into a puff of pink clouds.

Spinel glanced back and forth from where Despair had been to Steven. His face had gone ashen. 

“Wha-what was dat?” Spinel stammered. 

“Sorry. It’s the room,” Steven explained. “It… it doesn’t always do what I want it to.” 

**“Incorrect.” **

Two pink hands snatched Steven by his right arm and yanked him back against a chest with two matching pink gems. 

“This ‘room’ as you describe it, is, in fact, a luminal space that responds exclusively to your unconscious mind. What you perceive as it doing; ‘what you want is’ is actually your unconscious, subconscious, and conscious intentions lining up.” 

Steven yanked free of Despair’s grip and twisted around; fists raised. Despair caught Steven's punch with the matching opposite hand. Steven grabbed their wrist and dug his fingers in, grunting with the effort he was putting into his grip. 

Despair smirked and raised their eyebrows. “Huh. That’s weird. I’m not proofing into harmless little clouds.”

The three remaining hands grabbed Steven’s wrists and forced them up above his head

“I guess **someone** doesn’t actually want me to go away, does he?” Despair purred. They let go with their lower set of arms and wrapped them around Steven. One around his middle, the other supporting his backside. “He just wants to put up a fight so he can tell himself it ‘wasn’t his fauwt’ afterwards.”

Despair bound Steven’s wrists behind his back with one of their stretchy arms. Then they wrapped it back around, grabbing a handful of curly brown hair and yanked his head back. 

The final hand grabbed Steven’s chin, fingers digging in. Spinal could see Steven trying to fight back, having once been on the receiving end of his raw strength, she couldn’t imagine how he wasn’t managing to get even an inch of wiggle room against Despair. 

“Aw, it’s Owkay stevevwy. You need someone to pway the bad guy, and I’m happy to obwige. Go ahead and scream no as many times as you need to get off!”

“Go to hell!”

“Ohhhhh owwe, ow, ow! Careful with that fire poppet, I think I almost got burned!” Despair barked a laugh and narrowed their eyes at Steven. “If this isn’t doing it for you, we could do something else with our mouths.” 

They dug their fingers into Steven’s jaw, forcing it open. Spinel shifted to the edge of her seat. Her own mouth hanging open. 

Despair leaned in, lips pulling back to show off their pointed teeth. Steven stopped trying to break free, eyes shutting tight the moment Despair’s lips pressed over his. The kiss looked kinda funny because Despair was so much bigger than Steven that their mouths didn’t quite line up and they weren’t moving them much at all. 

Then Spinel noticed the way the muscles in Steven's throat were fluttering and his toes were curling against the red soles of his flip flops. 

Stars, it had to be halfway down Steven’s throat. Spinel was surprised Steven was managing not to choke on it. 

Despair lifted their head and pulled their extended tongue back. The tip of the appendage ended in a fork, like a snake. Steven shuddered and panted for breath, eyes watering. 

Despair’s licked their lips, their teeth snapping shut once their tongue was safely past them. 

“Heh. I’d be impressed, but we both know you’re used to having things shoved down your throat. Don’t we, gummy bear?”

Glistening black eyes glanced up to meet the mismatched set. Steven swallowed hard. For a moment, it seemed like he had gathered himself up enough to spit out another denial, but then the willpower drained away. Despair unbound his arms, and Steven let himself be coddled tightly to the fusion’s middle. One of their hands straying over to pet his head affectionately. 

“Spinel. Come here,” Despair ordered snapping their fingers of their two free hands. Spinel hesitated for only a moment before hurrying over. Acting on instinct, Spinel started raising her hands to do a Diamond salute, then quickly shoved them back down at her sides. 

“Listen up, Malibu. This is an important lesson for you to lean.” 

Despair sat down cross-legged, placing Steven in their lap. One hand kept petting his head while the other rubbed his back. A third stretched over and patted the floor by her feet. Spinel sat down in the indicated spot. 

“No matter how big and bad anyone acts. There’s always someone **bigger and badder** out there who can spin them into an obedient little puppy. 

Despair turned Steven’s head, so he was looking at her.

“There’s always a bigger fish, and a bigger shark, and if you want to _ be that shark _ all you gotta do is show them your teeth,” Despair flashed their mouthful of fangs to make the point. “Capisce?”

Spinel swallowed and nodded. Part of her knew this already. She’d thought along those lines when she broke into Pink’s armoury to find a rejuvenator. 

“And I’ll tell you another secret,” Despair purred as they lifted Steven’s chin up. “You don’t have to try very hard at all with Stevey-wevey, because he’s a huge whore just like his mommy.”

Steven blinked, the spell the kiss had put on him braking. He slapped Despair’s upper hand away for him and tried to push them off. 

“That’s not true! I’m not like her!” 

“Stupid, slutty, Steven, should seriously shut up!” 

Despair’s lower hands grabbed Steven’s, leaving him wrestling with himself before a third hand shoved it’s fingers into his mouth. Despair focused back on Spinel, ignoring any further protests from the Steven-gallery. 

“Aaaaaaaanyway~! like I was saying.. Steven is trying to control you because he’s terrified he might lose you.” 

“Lose me?” 

“Of course. It takes two to make Despair after all! Without you he’s just…. Nothing. Less than nothing! Less than a bottomless pit of nothing!”

Despair giggled and yanked Steven up by his arms again. 

“Tell Spinel what you really want,” Despair purred. “Go on. Let those dirty little secrets have some fresh air.” 

They took their fingers out, intentionally making Steven gag on them in the process. 

Despair set him down on his feet, giving him a moment to find his balance before shoving him hard between the shoulder blades towards Spinel. 

Steven stumbled before catching himself, his shoulders hunched all the way forward, his eyes still fixed on the ground. 

Spinel’s eyes went wide. Steven looked even more pathetic now than he had dangling from her fingers off the side of the injector. Even at full strength, Steven could still be reduced to this pitiful mess under the right circumstances. 

That was interesting. **Real interesting.**

“Hehe… is that right?” She asked. “Is there something yuh wanna tell me, Mista Universe?”

Spinel bent forward to meet his gaze while holding her hands innocently in her lap.

The two of them surrounded Steven on both sides. Despair grew in size as they loomed over Steven making themselves the hard place to her rock. 

“Come on, Steven,” Despair coxed. “Tell her what you want her to do to you. Tell her what you deserve for treating her like she’s nothing but an object for you to use.” 

Steven shoved his hands down over his ears, his whole body shaking, his expressive pupils shrunken to pinpricks. He opened his mouth, but for once in his lifetime spent lecturing gems, he had nothing to say.

“Can’t do it, huh?” Despair asked, “Oh well, guess we’ll just hafta do it the hard way.”

They held up a hand. At their command, the pink void around them blurred and shifted. Spinel closed her eyes. When she opened them, she knew where she was instantly just from the starts hanging overhead. She’d named every one of them. Made stories up about them to pass the endless time. Six had gone out while she waited for Pink to come back. Susie, Cory, Wanda, Toby and Dot. Their fading light echoing a death that had happened millions of years before she’d witnessed the end. 

Spinel leapt to her feet. She could tell just from the constellations that this version of the garden was from the first 500 years, but the evidence was all around her. The butterflies were still fluttering, and fish darted through the crystal-clear water, oblivious to the tragic fate they would endure once the pumping mechanism failed. 

Panic started to build inside Spinel’s chest. Why was she back here? She didn’t want to be here, never again. Never-!

Then she noticed she wasn’t alone. Steven was still standing in front of her and Despair towered over them both. Right. None of this was real. Pink couldn’t abandon her. She was gone, and both of them had become… that. Except not really. Because she was here, and Steven was here. Separate, for now. 

Despair raised their hand. Vines burst out of the dirt all around them, growing from tiny sprouts to thick rope-like lengths instantly. They snaked across the churned-up soil and latched onto Steven’s ankles. 

“Allow me to introduce you to Vincetoxicum rossicum, or as it’s more commonly known; the ‘dog strangling vine.’ It’s a very pernicious invasive species known to choke the life out of whole ecosystems.” 

Two more vines lashed out and tightened around Steven’s wrists. All four snapped tight, splaying him out and suspending him off the ground. Despair came up behind him and put their second set of hands onto Steven’s hips, sliding them underneath his jacket and shirt and pushing both up to expose his belly and gemstone. Steven leaned back, letting his head rest on Despair’s shoulder. 

Spinel was disgusted to find that she understood. She’d been equity guilty of indulging in the moments of affection Steven had given her. 

“Wellcome to **their garden** , Steven,” Despair purred into his ear. “I hate to be the one ta tell yuh but you won’t be getting **over** anything here! -And when you hit rock bottom? We’re going to bust out the shovels and Just. Keep. Digging.” 

Despair snort-laughed and dropped him. The vines slithered down Steven’s arms and up his legs, stopping when they reached his elbows and knees. 

“Also, that thing about the dog vines was a load of bullshit. I just called it that because they’re gonna strangle ya and turn you into a whimpering bitch!”

Despair’s attention fell back to Spinel. Spinel flinched and stared down at the dirt, bracing herself for more vines to come and grab her. Instead, Despair walked over to her. They gathered her gingerly in all four of their arms. Then sat down on the gras and placed her in their lap. 

“Unfortunately, Pink’s playground will only respond to whoever has her gem, but marionette strings can be pulled in both directions.” 

Despair held out their upper set of arms, the ones resembling Spinel’s. She placed her arms over theirs and Despair wound around hers. Arms around arms, fingers around fingers. Spinel wiggled her digits experimentally and the vines hovering around Steven wriggled in sync. 

“He’s all yours. He’s always been all yours.” 

Spinel lifted her pinky finger and experimentally manoeuvred a vine around Steven’s throat. 

“Oh! Neat.” 

Spinel grinned wide. She dropped Steven into the dirt and dragged him over to her. She left him lying face down in the mud as the vines around his arms and legs wound up towards his body. The vine around his throat curled under his chin and forced his head up. 

“Hello sailor,” she purred, cocking her head to the side. “Come here often?”

Spinel had to admit there was something about seeing the saviour of the galaxy laying on his belly in front of her, curls mussed, clothing half torn off, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes… It was all downright intoxicating. 

“Spinel… please-” Steven stammered.

“Please, what?” Spinel barked back. “ **‘Please don’t’?**’ ha!” 

As if. Like she would show him any mercy now he was the one begging. Spinel could see the vines twisting underneath Steven’s clothing, but she wanted to see more. She wanted to see everything. A pair of vines pinched his jacket collar and pulled it off, while the ones around his arms held them up. The jacket ended up halfway down the length of the vines, hanging from them like it had been hung up to dry. Just like its owner. 

Spinel licked her lips as she hauled him back up to his knees. She watched as the thick green lengths pressed into Steven’s skin. Most gems would poof after being put under this kind of pressure, but Steven was made of firmer stuff. Firm but fragile once his limits were breached. 

The vines reached his shoulders, but that didn’t seem like a reason to stop. Spinel pushed them further under the cut-off sleeves. Steven’s whole body convulsed. Spinel thought he was trying to make another attempt to escape, but then he let out his breath in the form of a shuddering moan. The vines that had been travelling up his legs wound around his upper thighs and popped up over the waistband of his jeans before continuing to truss up his tummy. 

“Wh-what? You’re enjoying this?!” Spinel exclaimed, cackling at the revelation. “Who am I kidding, of course, you are. You’re a fucking freak.”

She crossed the vines over one another, framing the misaligned gem on his belly inside the proper shape, creating a pattern of Diamonds all up his front with the crisscrossing vines. 

“Sp-Spinel…”

Spinel pulled her fingers in. The vines snapped taught, squeezing every bit of Steven, forcing the air from his lungs. 

“But nothing is saying I can’t enjoy my revenge just because **you** like it too...” 

Spinel pulled herself up from Despair’s lap. She approached Steven and threw their combined arms around his shoulders. The vines met around his chest, the four tips twisting together to complete the harness. Spinel rubbed her form up against him, the thick vines underneath his clothing felt good rubbing against the little nubs on the front of her breasts. 

“I finally get it now. I can be a master, or I’ll be a slave. Abuse, or be abused, it’s that simple. That why we’re going to torture one another forever and ever and ever. Chasing an endless cycle of pain and pleasure. Hate and love!”

Spinel slipped two vines into the side of Steven’s mouth and pressed her lips against his, using the opening provided to easily slip her tongue in after them. Spinel’s pigtails bunched up in delight as she wrapped her tongue around Steven’s. She moaned into his mouth, then dropped back down onto her heels. Her form flushed with magenta and her gem glimmered with pleasure.

Steven was looking a lot pinker too. Especially around the cheeks. Spinel had seen his spectrum change before, but this blush was a lot more colourful and intense than usual. If it spread any more, he might turn completely pink. 

“I love you,” Spinel murmured. She held Steven’s face in Despair’s hands, pressed over her own.

Steven’s eyes flickered from her to the shadow watching them.

“Is… is that really what you want?”

Spinel bristled and bore her fangs. He wanted to know what she wanted? She wanted to hear three words from him and he’d only gotten one correct. 

“Say it! Say it back!” Spinal roared, her eyes going wide. “Say it, or I’ll break your fuckin’ arm!”

Spinel yanked Steven’s left arm up and tightened the vines until Steven screamed 

Despair leaned back and whistled. “Daaaaaaamn! Who hid the razor blade in Barbie?”

Spinel finally had Steven’s full attention. He was finally seeing her as her. Not a lost little bunny rabbit he needed to save or as the missing half he needed to become more. 

“Spinel I…”

Spinel recognised the tone. She heard the lecture coming. She crushed the vines down, stopping just shy of breaking his forearm into spiky splinters. 

“No! Stop! I love you! I love you! I love you! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I-I’m so-so-sor-sor-rrr-y…” Steven cried his voice cracking and giving way to blubbering. 

Spinel took a deep breath and slowly eased off the pressure. 

“There ya go. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Out of curiosity, Spinel leaned in and licked the tears off Steven’s cheeks just like he had done to her. The effect was brief but intense, striking her hard and leaving her tingling.

She took an unsteady step back, her head still swimming. Her gaze caught on the gem on Steven’s belly and a cruel smile spread across her cheeks. 

“That will be all.” 

She clapped twice and shoved three of the remaining vines into Steven’s mouth and down his throat. 

Despair slowly wound their hands back from Spinel’s. They put all four of them together, giving her a standing ovation. 

“Bravo. Brava! You’re a quick learner, doll.” 

Despair walked around seven, admiring her handiwork. “You even made him cry! Mmhm. I’m getting hard just looking at him…” 

One of the lower set of arms patted Spinel affectionately on the head. Spinel looked up at them with wide eyes. She’d… done something right? Pin- Despair was proud of her? 

“So, Now what?” She asked. 

Despair laced their fingers together and cracked both sets of their knuckles. 

“Now? Oh… Ooo… Now it’s daddy’s turn.”

Despair flashed their fingers into claws and slashed Steven’s shirt open. Splitting the star down the middle and revealing the harness binding his chest. The vines holding Steven’s arms folded them behind his back, pressing his palms against one another like he was begging for forgiveness, but on the wrong side of his body. 

Despair’s lower arms made short work of the buttons and zipper on Steven’s jeans. Spinel shifted closer to them and peeked out from around Despair’s hip. 

She could have been wrong since Spinel tried not to look at Steven’s tool-thingy if she could avoid it, but it seemed like it was significantly more perky than usual. 

Despair’s left bottom hand kept tugging Steven’s pants and underwear down while the fingers of the right one curled around Steven’s tool. 

Despair ruffed Steven’s hair and pressed him to their chest with their upper two arms. 

“This ought to be a bit of a mind fuck,” Despair mused as they tightened perfect replicas of Steven’s fingers. _ “Familiar… Why is this so familiar? Familiar, like something you used to do...” _

Despair shoved Steven down with both of Spinel’s hands. Shorter vines pinned his ankles and knees into the keeling position while the vine harness kept his upper body suspended. 

_ “Familiar. But this time you’ve had some practice, at wrecking, your devoted family. Oh, we’ve got them both together in one place, and now we're all together, face to face! No one sees the error of their ways, and soon I’ll spread my terror across spaaace!” _

The vines in Steven’s mouth slid back, the pointed tips curling into a ring shape that settled behind his teeth. Despair snapped their fingers. Pink clouds rushed in to form the requested object. 

“Ever used a whip before, easy-bake?” Despair asked as they handed Spinel an odd-looking black stick. It had a handle and leather loop on one end and a heart-shaped decoration on the other. Spinel waved it through the air experimentally. There was some give in both the stick part and the bit at the end, but it didn’t seem very useful as a weapon. 

“Why is this one so short?” She asked, turning back to Despair. They were holding Steven’s face in their lower hands and unfastening their pants with the other two. They paused and rolled their eyes at her. 

“Because it’s technically a riding crop. Tell you what, doll face. You do good with that, and I’ll get you a proper flogger next time.”

Despair inclined their head towards the vines forcibly holding Steven’s bare backside up. 

“Give it a try. I think Steven’s going to need a distraction to stop him from choking.”

“Got it!” Spinel agreed, saluting Despair with her newly acquired whip. Spinel almost skipped as she went. This was way more fun than the boring stuff Steven had wanted to do. Spinel herd Steven make a strange gagging sound. Despair’s chuckle mixing with a moan. 

Spinel didn’t pay either much mind as she sized up her target. She swiped the crop through the air a few times to get a feel for the balance. She tried to picture it as a tiny scythe, compensating for the strange balance. Spinel took a swing, glancing the blow off Steven’s right cheek. He was too tightly bound to have much of a reaction besides a muffled cry and his fingers and toes curling. To Spinel’s delight, the mark left behind was heart-shaped. She paced around to the other side and struck again, holding the crop at an odd angle, so the next heart-shaped mark was upside down. 

Spinel ran her hand over the two faint bruises, feeling how much warmer the pink parts where. It was almost like Steven’s blushes but entirely under her control. 

Despair grabbed a handful of Steven’s brown curls. They were looking somewhat flushed themselves, though more on one side than the other. 

“Unf. Keep going, sweetie. His throat tightens up every time you hit him,” Despair ordered. 

“Yes, ma’am!”

Spinel happily added more and more hearts, relishing the firm snap of the crop with each impact. 

“Enough!” 

Spinel stopped the second she was ordered. She hadn’t noticed when it had happened, but Despair was moving a lot more now, especially around the hips. 

The vines around Steven’s body began to retreat into the ground. His knees buckled without the support, leaving Despair’s four-handed grip all that was keeping him upright. 

The fusion threw their head back and moaned, a shudder passing through their massive body. 

“Swallow it.,” They lisped through their fangs. “Taste pure Despair.” 

Then without warning, they let go. Steven collapsed into the spot where the vines had been, landing in a fresh bed of daffodils. The flowers softened his landing slightly. 

Steven coughed and spluttered, his shoulders shaking as he fought for breath. Curious, Spinel keeled down beside him. She rolled him over onto his side. Silva decorated his lips and chin, and something pink was dripping from the corner of his mouth. 

Spinel leaned down and tasted it. Her pupils grew wide, and her vision blurred. Her mind went blank as she sunk into fuchsia tinted bliss. She needed more. Needed It now. Right now. She pounced on Steven and climbed up on top of him, capturing his lips with her own. His saliva mixed with that... stuff. It was enough to make a gem poof. 

They wrestled in the flower bed, limbs and tongues intertwining. Steven grabbed her hips and Spinel gasped as his tool split her lower lips and settled inside. She squeezed his hips between her legs, the mind-numbing sensation doubling as some of his ‘pre’stuff leaked into her. 

Spinel groped around blindly until she found her riding crop. She sat up, her hips seeming to move without any input from her. She braced herself with the confidence of a trailed bull rider. 

“Hahah! Ahhahah~!”

Spinel brought the crop down on Steven’s chest. The slap echoed, and his hips bucked hard. Spinel arched back, seeing stars flash over the actual starts overhead. 

Two beige hands grabbed Steven by the shoulders and a pair of pink ones snatched at Spinel, ripping them apart. 

“Fuck, I can’t leave you two alone for five minutes before you start going at one another like feral rabbits!” Despair growled. 

A smile crept over their face. “-and that’s just how I want it.” 

Despair dropped Spinel and pointed over at the pink jacket laying in a pool of mud. 

“Doll, go fetch me the bottle in its pocket.”

Spinel swallowed and nodded. Her pigtails had curled up entirely and the sticky stuff her altered form made was all over her thighs. She had a job to do, though, and she wasn’t going to let any of that distract her. Her Dia- Despair needed her. 

She tried the left pocket first. It was empty. Next, she tried the right and found a small black bottle with white human letters on the front. Spinel squinted at them, trying to sus the meaning out. 

“What does ‘back door’ mean?” 

“It means Steven is going to regret it if you don’t give that to me in the next five seconds.” 

Spinel rushed back and passed the bottle to Despair. 

“Cool. Hold this for a second,” Despair threw Steven at Spinel. She caught him in a tight hug, then hosted him up into her arms. He still had the bruise on his chest from her riding crop. Spinel giggled and kissed the top of it. 

“Heya Steven~!”

“H-hi Spinel,” Steven replied, his voice thin and scratchy. 

‘I love you,” Spinel thrilled, squeezing him tightly and rocking him gently back and forth. 

Steven hesitated for only a moment before replying. “I love you too.” 

Meanwhile, Despair had popped open the cap and was sizing up their right hands. 

“Spinel’s fingers or yours?” Despair asked. “Actually, let's use yours. No reason to switch thing up in the fourth quarter, eh?”

Despair squeezed the bottle into that hand and rubbed their fingers together, coating them in a whiteish liquid. 

Their upper hands grabbed Steven’s thighs and forced them open. Spinel pulled Steven back against her chest, holding him up at about Despair’s hip height. 

She looked over Steven’s shoulder. Deadly curious about what would happen next. Despair pressed their slicked-up fingertips into a spot under Steven’s tool. To her surprise, they went in. 

“Woah! Steven has a hole too!” She enthused. 

Despair chuckled. “He sure does, babycakes. A hole he’s been _ desperate _ to fill.” 

Despair shifted and lined their tool up with Steven’s. Spinel had known Despair had one, how could she not? But now she saw theirs in context with Steven’s, she realised how dissimilar they were. Steven had a straight length with a distinct top part, while Despair’s was much more extensive and had layers of pink and beige twisted around one another, creating distinct ridges along the shaft that got fuller near the base. 

That looked like big fun, but when Despair rested it against Steven’s tummy, the tip almost touched Steven’s gem. Didn’t Steven have important stuff he kept in his body that might get sprained? 

“Is that gonna fit?” she asked. 

Despair shrugged. “It should. Stevey has been practising. He’s been playing with himself for weeks to get ready for it. Haven’t you, babe?”

Steven was panting like he had just run a marathon, even though he’s hardly moved of his own volition since Despair had snatched him up. He shuddered, reacting to something their fingers were doing. 

“Y-yes,” Steven admitted. 

"You want this, don't you?"

“Yes, please.”

Despair scoffed and thrust their fingers into Steven so hard he yelped. 

“Come on. You can beg better than that. You know the words.”

Steven swallowed hard and nodded. 

“I want it. I really, really, want it. Please, please, Despair. Take me, take me, take me!”

Spinel watched with eyes wide open, mouthing along with the last ‘take me’. 

Bastard. She should have known this was all a fucking game to him. After all, this was his room. Things only happened here because he wanted them to. 

But now that she knew it was a game, she could play her hand. 

Spinel giggled and nuzzled into Steven’s neck. Braking out into full chuckles after a moment. 

Despair paused, poised right before adding the fourth finger. Steven whined but Despair didn’t seem to notice. 

“Got something you want to share with the class, Malibu?”

Spinel smiled and batted her eyelashes at them. 

“Oohoo, well, I was just thinking about how funny Steven is going to walk after this. Itsa such a shame it will only be for a day or so...” 

Despair frowned and jerked their fingers out of Steven, grabbing his thighs and shoulders and plucking Steven out of Spinel’s arms. 

“A day? Tch… we can do better than that. Can’t we?” 

Spinel and Despair exchanged grins and looks. Three pink-spiral filled eyes between them.

Despair flipped Steven over and dumped him face-first into the daffodils. 

Spinel clapped her hands and bounced. 

“Hehe! Yes! Ya gonna fuck him up?”

Despair stretched their upper arms out and pinned Steven’s hands over his head. They poured the last of the back bottle out into the palm of their left bottom hand and coated their tool in it. 

“Up, down, every direction really,” Despair mused. 

Despair planted one knee in-between Steven’s legs, using their lower hands to part them wider. Spinel picked out a front-row seat Infront of Steven. She took his arms from Despair and wrapped them around her hips, then lifted Steven’s head up and let him rest his chin on her crossed legs. 

“That’s just… wonderful.”

She patted Steven’s head watched his expression closely as Despair lined themselves up and pushed in. For the most part, he was wide-eyed and opened mouthed, but each time one of the spiral ridges caught, he whimpered and clung a little tighter. 

“Aw, Steven. I guess no one can say you can dish it out but not take it now. Huh?” Spinel teased. “it hurts?” 

Steven nodded. 

“Good.” 

Despair snorted and slammed the final twist of their tool into Steven. He yelped in pain, his body tensing then relaxing as he surrendered to Despair. For a moment the only sounds in the empty garden were Despair’s panting broken up by short growls, Steven’s whimpering, and the rustling of the flowers every time he shuddered. 

Despair raised their hips. Steven was forced to move with them, even though Despair wasn’t lifting him with any of their hands. 

“Mmm, I remain impressed Stevo. You took it all without crying, and it was your first one ever! It’s almost like you were built to take alien dick.” 

Despair sat up, supporting Steven with their lower hands this time. 

“That’s so weird, though. Weren’t you just saying you weren’t like you-know-who? That you’re not a short-sighted, selfish, stupid, slut?”

Spinel scooted closer, despite her doubts, Despair had fit it all in. They had Steven pinned and spread like a mounted butterfly. 

“Let’s try this again, shall we? What are you?”

Steven shifted in Despair’s lap. Spinel wondered where he thought he was going, but after a moment she realised he was just trying to move his hips. To get Despair to keep going. 

“A... a slut. A stupid slut,” Steven whimpered. 

Despair held out their top two hands, and Spinel took them in her matching ones allowing Despair to pull her up. 

“And there we have it. A stupid slut and his pocket-pussy. A match made in hell.” 

Spinel let out a breath as Steven’s tool filled her up again. She crossed her legs around both him and the monster they were both settled in the lap of. 

“Welcome to the top, Spinel. How do you like it?” Despair asked.

“I could get used to it.”

Spinel kissed Steven, losing herself in the taste of him. Despair grabbed her hips with her hands and Steven’s with his and bounced the pair of them together. Each thrust chain reacting into Steven bucking up into her. Despair fucked her by extension as they screwed Steven. 

“if I gave two shits, I’d point out the metaphor here, but… I don’t,” Despair mused. 

Steven’s gem began to glow brighter with each thrust. Spinel’s heart shimmered along with it. She switched between kissing him and resting her head on his shoulder, listening to him moan and cry out as Despair worked him over. 

Spinel had thought she’d failed to get her revenge, but instead, like with the rejuvenator, she’d secretly hurt him even worse than she could have imagined. She’d hurt him, he’d hurt her, and the cycle went on, a snake trying to eat its own tail. 

Steven held her tightly, clinging desperately to his teddy bear. Spinel crossed her arms behind his shoulders, holding him back gingerly. 

“Yur tired of existing arnt you?” Spinel whispered. More of Steven’s pre-stuff was leaking out of him and tingling up her form. She assumed this must be a side effect of Despair roughly rearranging his insides, that sotra thing made her drip stuff as well. 

“That’s why you come to me. Why you need me. You get tired and want to be someone else fur a change.” 

Steven might have tried to reply, but he couldn’t get any syllables out through his panting. 

“I know how that feels.” 

Spinel could sense him getting close, his tool was throbbing against her insides, and the glow from his gem was white-hot. 

“Let’s go away. Just for now, or forever. I don’t care.”

Despair slammed Steven down and hissed through clenched fangs “Aw, fuck! Just… just a little more,” They grunted, taking back upper hands from Spinel so they could rake their claws down Steven’s back. 

“Hnhgghgh… mmmhmm… There we go.” 

Despair’s tongue lolled out of their mouth; they gave Steven a few more shallow thrusts then stilled. Lower hand’s fingers digging into his thighs. Spinel didn’t have to guess what was happening because she felt it first. She closed her eyes and whimpered, her form losing its shape as ecstasy took over. 

The fusion happened slowly as if the being was reluctant to come forth until they finished enjoying the aftershocks of the ‘dance’ that created it. 

Then the light went out. 

Despair groaned. 

“Stars! Fucking! God-damn…”

They bent forward so they could rub their face with all four hands.

“Uuuuuuugh. None of the other fusions hav’ta deal with this diamond shit. They getta wake up after a nice little dance… and here I am. Everything hurts, I’m fucking tired, probably dehydrated too, and that is not an innuendo…” 

Despair shook their head like a wet dog and blinked at the pink void around them. Then their eyes settled on the identical copy of themselves they were sitting in the lap of. 

“Whoa, heya handsome. You must be why I’m bleeding, sticky, and the inside of my mouth tastes like salty skittles.”

Despair scoffed and narrowed their eyes. 

“Eh... what the hell.”

They leaned in and kissed themselves, long forked tongues darting around two sets of sharp teeth. Despair pulled back and thrust their clawed fingers into the abdomen of their double. A soft poof and nothing was left but pink clouds. 

Despair straightened up, bracing their lower back with their second set of hands and stretching the first above their head. 

“Alright enough with the naval gazing. I don’t even have one of those.” 

They tilted their head from side to side and rolled their two sets of shoulders back. 

“Let’s check the to-do list...”

A clipboard and a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles popped out of the air and Despair caught both. They perched the latter on their face and snapped their fingers to put a pen in their hand. 

“Let see… Step one: fuck with Spinel and Steven… Check.”

Despair put a huge checkmark next to step one. 

“Step two: be Despair.”

They looked down at themselves and added another check.

“Step three: Cause the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Galatic History.” 

Despair tossed the clipboard, glasses and pen over their shoulder. “Cool. Bone Steven’s ass then the word. Got it! But… where should I begin?”

Despair drummed their fingers against their cheeks. 

“I got it. Let’s start with that little purple somebody who’s catching wise that little Steven isn’t all better now.” 


End file.
